'Terrorism may not have broken London, but it did break some of us'

The World
Flowers left by mourners at a memorial ceremony to victims of the July 7, 2005 London bombings, in Hyde Park, central London.

Ten years ago today, a group of young men boarded trains and a bus in London and detonated the explosives they were carrying. Fifty two people were killed and more than 700 were injured. The 7/7 attacks were one of the worst terrorist attacks ever to happen in Britain.

A decade on, the anniversary was marked in different ways across the capital. A minute's silence was observed during morning rush hour. There was a special service at St Pauls Cathedral. Ordinary commuters on their way to work left their London Underground trains and walked together in groups in tribute to the victims.

But perhaps the moving tribute came at an open air ceremony for survivors and victims' families in Hyde Park. Standing in the afternoon sunlight and fighting back tears, Emma Craig, a survivor of the Aldgate station bomb, gave a short speech explaining how that day had changed her. She was 14 years old in 2005, and was travelling on the Underground to get to a work experience placement when the bomb went off.

Here is part of her speech:

"Everyone in London remembers where they were on that day.

I kept remembering being terrified of stepping on the wooden slats of the train tracks in case the electricity wasn't turned off. I didnt' quite understand what was happening. Someone mentioned the word bomb. But that couldn't be true, could it?

I managed to hold in my tears, and act like the adult I was pretending to be. Until i got to the side of the platform at Aldgate, when my mum rang me to check I was OK.

Becuase she'd heard that a bomb had gone off.

And I said: 'Mum, I was there. I was on the tube.'

My mum doesn't swear, so all I remember her saying was 'Sugar! I'm on my way.'

Now, I can't stand up here - as many have done before - and say that the London bombings have had an effect on me that has changed my life positively. Because it was an still is very much a part of my growing up. My childhood. My adolescence. But quite often people say 'it didn't break us. Terrorism won'never break us'.

Fact is, it may not have broken London, but it did break some of us.

Sometime I feel that people are so hell bent on trying to make a point about terrorism not breaking us that they forget about all the people that got caught up in it. Not for my sake, but for those that were killed on that day and their families, they are the people we are here to remember. May we never forget."

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